


Episode 27 - A Case of Concern

by stgjr



Series: "The Power of a Name" Series 3 - "Time Lord Penitent" [24]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Multi-Fandom, NCIS
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multiple Crossovers, Multiverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-16 18:31:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11258538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stgjr/pseuds/stgjr
Summary: Our narrator is called in to help American police agents deal with a peculiar case concerning a missing Navy lieutenant.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on May 11th, 2015.

Liara and I rushed back into the TARDIS while screams from angry lizard things echoed behind us. "That wasn't a pleasant stop!", Liara protested.  
  
"Wrong time period!", I shouted. "Was aiming for a different geologic period a few million years down the way!" I ran my hands over the controls and hit the lever just before one of the brown-mottled reptiles could slam into the TARDIS. I let out a breath and leaned slightly against the controls. "Well, that was a nice work out."  
  
"I have never had to run this much," Liara gasped.  
  
I raised an eyebrow. "Not even when trying to keep up with Shepard?"  
  
"Not even... then," she answered.  
  
"Ah. Well. Keeps us in shape anyway."  
  
That won me a bit of a glare from Liara. I wisely said nothing else, lest I get a warp blast to the face.  
  
With the TARDIS resting in the Time Vortex we took the time to change clothes and attend to the sticky sensation of the sweat one gets in tropical conditions - especially when running from a velociraptor's bigger and uglier cousin. I was just pulling on my new ballistic vest when I heard the phone ring. "Well, I wonder who that is," I said aloud, rushing to the receiver I kept in the library by my hot tub. I picked it up. "Hello there."  
  
A voice I hadn't heard in a while came through on the other end. " _Hey Doctor._ "  
  
Liara was coming into the library. She looked at me quizzically. I smiled back and turned my attention back to my caller. "Well well," I said. "Agent Gibbs, it has been a while. Business I presume?"  
  
One of my more memorable early adventures was also one of the first times I ran into the Cracks in the Multiverse. In this case, it was a Crack that threatened to turn a normal 21st Century Earth into a snowball. My TARDIS had decided to put me in place to prevent that, and had done so by depositing me in the United States Navy Yard at Washington D.C. Specifically, the headquarters of the navy police, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, where I met my caller - Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs - and his team of quirky but rather effective police agents (well, police agents and Mossad agent, really). It had been something of a shock for them to have the TARDIS materializing all over NCIS headquarters in my initial attempts to depart an Earth that my TARDIS really didn't fit well, but in the end we got over our mutual surprise at the situation and sealed the Crack (with a little help from a couple of retired Navy JAG lawyers). I had left them a phone to contact me should the Crack give them any further trouble.  
  
" _Got a case right up your alley,_ " Gibbs answered. " _It's a weird one._ "  
  
"I see. Well, I can't turn that down. Where would you like to meet? Your headquarters?"  
  
" _I've got somewhere better in mind._ "  
  
  
  
  
He did indeed.  
  
I easily found the stairs that led me down into the basement of Gibbs' house, a rather nice one in one of the suburban areas around the American capital. "Very nice work space," I said aloud, noting the many tools for woodcrafting he kept, among other things. To my surprise there was no half-finished boat on the table. "I feel a bit honored, getting invited to a private meeting with you here."  
  
Gibbs was wearing an old gray T-shirt marked with the US Marine Corps eagle, globe, and anchor insignia and matching dark sweat pants, undoubtedly from the slight chill of the fall night. He looked up from what looked to be a toy rocking horse he was carving from a block of fine wood. Upon seeing me he set the carving tools down and reached for a small glass, empty, and a bottle that was not empty and which was marked as... bourbon, I believe. "That was quick," he said.  
  
"Benefits of time travel," I said, walking up. "No Beltway traffic, for one thing."  
  
"Nice suit," Gibbs said. "New look for you."  
  
"Purple's my favorite color, I decided it looked better in my wardrobe."  
  
He smirked at that. He reached over to an empty glass jar and poured some of the bourbon into it and then more into the glass. He offered the jar to me. Being a good guest was something I sought to maintain, given some of the beings I dealt with and their views on such, so I accepted the jar graciously and took a quick drink. I allowed the fiery sensation to burn its way into my stomach. I waited for him to finish his drink before asking, "So, something's wrong?"  
  
"Something, yeah," he said. Gibbs pulled open one of his drawers and pulled out a manila folder. It had a case file number on it. I accepted it, noting the number, and opened it. "Missing persons, potential AWOL case. Took a turn for the weird."  
  
"Hrm." I looked over the file. "Lieutenant Kyle Varner, assigned to _USS Patrick Henry_. Failed to report for duty, I see."  
  
"Yeah. His mother reported him missing the day after."  
  
I nodded. The picture was of a prim young man, brown eyes, dark reddish hair. Caucasian, but I could tell the hints of East Coast Native American - Choctaw? Cherokee? - ancestry, and a something in the jaw structure, hair, and facial layout made me think he had a Sub-Saharan African ancestor somewhere about five generations in the past. The expression was serious. He looked fairly normal, as young naval officers went. "Roughly middle of the road in his class at Annapolis," I noted. "Some commendations, but nothing too special. Anything special about his background? Politician in the family pushing for resolution, that sort of thing?"  
  
"No, nothing like that," Gibbs answered, sipping again and watching me.  
  
I kept looking through the file. A quick browse of his medical report showed he was a properly fit young man. "A hiker?", I mused. Hrm. "Nature hikes too, I see. And statements from his colleagues?"  
  
Gibbs nodded.  
  
I flipped a couple pages to find them, and there I skimmed. "He was off to hike in the Shenandoah River State Park two days before he was to report. Nobody saw him afterward." I blinked and sighed. "Well, I imagine you've looked for a body?"  
  
Gibbs finished his next sip. "Keep reading."  
  
I did so. More statements. A report on Lieutenant Varner's security clearances, or rather lack thereof, and his value to potential hostile forces, namely being minimal. His knowledge of military technology was not anything special, I could see.  
  
And then I came upon the final papers.  
  
I read them.  
  
I blinked.  
  
I read them again, my mind racing. "Ducky and Abby are... certain?"  
  
"Yeah," Gibbs answered.  
  
I swallowed and nodded.  
  
The papers I held started with an autopsy report for a body found in the park where the missing lieutenant had gone off to hike, complete with an identification number.  
  
The second paper was from Abby, showing a complete genetic match between Lieutenant Varner and the body from the park, the identification markers matching completely. Then a third paper, a form from Ducky, who had gone over the initial autopsy and the X-rays and confirmed the match via dental records. Lieutenant Varner had died in the Park.  
  
But that wasn't the important part.  
  
The important part was that the body had been found in _1960_.  
  
"Well well," I breathed. "Lieutenant Varner, or at least his body, was thrown back in time," I said.  
  
At that moment, a new voice joined the conversation. "And that, Doctor, is why we called you."  
  
Gibbs showed a flicker of irritation on his expression, but only a flicker. I turned and watched another figure, well-dressed, walking down the stairs. He had well-kept hair, a demeanor of authority, and his eyes glistened with curiosity and intelligence.  
  
"Director Vance," I said. "A pleasure to finally meet you."  
  
"If circumstances were better I might say the same," he said, his voice firm and controlled. He walked up, hands kept carefully to his sides, but he did offer his right hand for me to shake. I did so. "I've got undeniable proof that a Navy Lieutenant was found dead over a quarter of a century before he was born. We need to find out why, and from what I've seen and heard, you're the best man for the job."  
  
"Yes," I said in reply. "I suppose I am. But I'm no government agent."  
  
"We'll consider you a civilian consultant for the case," Vance answered me. "Will you accept the case?"  
  
I looked to Gibbs, who was watching us quietly, and looked back to the file.  
  
A man had somehow ended up not just dead, but a half century in the past. On a world with no time travel technology.  
  
That made me worried. Could it be the Crack? Something else? I had to find out.  
  
Which meant I had to go the Harry Dresden routine of being the special consultant to the authorities. Just federal ones.  
  
Harry would be quite jealous.  
  
I snapped the case file closed and handed it to Vance. "Well then." I looked to Gibbs. "We have a mystery to solve."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
We were due at NCIS Headquarters the following morning, although obviously I could go there where I pleased. So I took the time to think over what I had seen in the case file while Liara fussed with the holobelt. "I'm still not certain why you need me to wear this," she protested, appearing as a young fair-skinned Human woman with short and very brilliantly-colored blue hair. "These people know _you're_ not Human."  
  
"Yes, but I look Human," I pointed out. "It's for appearances sake."  
  
Liara huffed for a moment. "So, someone was thrown back in time by over fifty Earth years and died in the past?"  
  
"Or he was killed in this time period and his body fell into the past," I remarked. "Or was taken there."  
  
"I see." Liara settled back into the seat across from me. "You look worried."  
  
"This world has a Crack," I said. "I sealed it, but it was open for a time. Anything might have come out of it. Beings, creatures, rogue time agents...." I breathed in a sigh. "I have a bad feeling about this one, Liara."  
  
She nodded. "Well, it's a good thing we'll have so much help, isn't it?"  
  
"Somewhat, but one thing to remember is that these people don't experience the things we do. Their world doesn't deal in exotic physics technology or alien invasions or supernatural occurrences. Well, not normally for the latter. The Crack's caused a few issues to pop up." After my hasty correction I continued. "The important thing is... if this is something bad, it might be something they're not used to handling. We're going to have to be careful."  
  
"You might be underestimating them."  
  
"No, I'm not," i said. "I'm fully aware of their capability to roll with what would have otherwise seemed insane to them. I just want to be ready in case things get _really_ weird." I remained silent for a moment before slapping my hands on my knees. "Enough stalling. Let's get started."  
  
  
  
  
I materialized the TARDIS in the NCIS evidence room. Gibbs and Vance were waiting for us. "Here." Vance handed me a pair of badges marked "Consultant". I handed one to Liara and clipped the other one to my jacket. "These don't give you access to secure areas," the director explained. "But it'll keep anyone from shooting you if we're not around."  
  
"Very kind of you," I said, not remarking that I could probably go anywhere I wanted as it was. "First stop?"  
  
"Ducky's waiting for us in the morgue," Gibbs answered, and he took the lead in heading toward the nearby lift.  
  
I hadn't really seen the NCIS morgue before. I mean, not in terms of standing in it and examining things as opposed to running out of the TARDIS for a few seconds and running back in. The only cadaver present was not really a corpse so much as it was a pile of decomposed bones. It was a bit unsettling.  
  
Liara showed little reaction to the sight. It was probably quite tame considering what she had gone through before, what with the Reapers and all of that.  
  
As we entered Ducky looked up from a paper he was examining, already wearing his scrubs. "Ah, Director, Jethro..." He spied me and a faint smile came to his face. "Ah, and the Doctor as well. A pleasure to have you back."  
  
"Pleasure is mine, Ducky," I answered. I gestured to Liara. "This is Doctor Liara T'Soni, my current Companion. Liara, Doctor Donald Mallard, and his assistance Jimmy Palmer."  
  
"Doctor T'Soni?", Ducky asked, not so much a verification of identity but undoubtedly curiosity as to what she was a doctor of.  
  
"I'm an archeologist," Liara answered. "Or rather, I believe you would consider me a xenoarcheologist."  
  
"She's an expert on the Protheans, an ancient race of her galaxy," I said.  
  
"Ah, quite interesting. I once considered archeology myself..."  
  
There was a slight clearing of someone's throat. Ducky looked to Vance and nodded. "We'll have to discuss this later, yes," he admitted, leading us over to the remains. "This was the John Doe found in the Shenandoah River Park on April 19th, 1960. According to the autopsy, cause of death was due to an internal hemorrhage in his brain that emptied into the areas of the frontal and parietal lobes."  
  
"And this is Lieutenant Varner?", I asked.  
  
Ducky nodded. "The dental records are as good a match as you can get despite some of the decomposition. I already sent some of the genetic material to Abby for a final confirmation."  
  
"Hrm." I brought out my sonic screwdriver and scanned the remains. "Fifty years means that a lot of the temporal energy he could have accumulated will have dissipated. But there might be some trace elements..." I shook my head a moment later. "Nothing."  
  
"What if he was dead before he was... thrown back in time?" The look on Vance's face made it clear just how hard it was for him to take the idea seriously. Even if the science didn't lie, it was something literally out of his world.  
  
"Wouldn't matter. Temporal energy doesn't care whether you're alive or dead, exposure of matter to it can leave behind traces. But if it's not frequent enough..." I sighed and pocketed the screwdriver. "Well, I can't confirm the body time-traveled or not."  
  
Gibbs rounded to the other side of the table. "Anything else, Duck?"  
  
"The decomposition makes it hard to find much," Ducky answered. "But I think I found something the ME from 1960 did not." He led us over to an X-Ray. "I used some of our imaging equipment to get a closer look at what's left of the skeleton. See here." He indicated one of the shots.  
  
We took turns looking at a close-up of what looked to be the bones of the man's arms. I narrowed my eyes as I looked at what appeared to be the forearm. "Is that what I think it is, Ducky?"  
  
"This man broke his arm shortly before he died," Ducky said. "Along the lower forearm and the wrist. The breakage shows no sign of healing."  
  
"It must have been a very light fracture," Vance noted. "Otherwise, wouldn't they have noticed?"  
  
"Not necessarily," Ducky said. "A John Doe found in the park, with a clear cranial injury and obvious internal bleeding in the brain? I suspect that once their ME saw that he declared it the cause of death and filed the entire case away."  
  
"Varner wouldn't have gone hiking with a broken arm or wrist, would he?", Liara asked. "Your medical technology does not permit quick healing of bones, so he could never have functioned well with such injuries."  
  
"I find the idea dubious, yes," Ducky answered. "A knowledgeable hiker would know it was too much of a risk."  
  
"A breakage like this could have come from falling," I postulated. "Or having the bone subjected to stress in some way."  
  
"I agree." Ducky turned away and went back to the body. "I'm still making some examinations, but I'm afraid that's about all I can tell you. Going by the dental records, these bones are likely to be Lieutenant Varner's remains."  
  
"Thank you, Doctor Mallard," Vance said. "Doctors, if you will..." He turned away from Liara and myself when his phone began ringing. "Vance. Yes. I understand. I'll be right there."  
  
"Trouble?", Gibbs asked.  
  
"SecNav wants to talk to me," Vance said. "Lieutenant Varner's mother is starting to make a public fuss. A few media outlets have picked up on it." He looked back to the body on the table. "Now, how do you propose we tell her and the entire world that Lieutenant Varner somehow wound up as a dead body half a century ago?"  
  
"You don't," I said. "Although I admit that's not my department."  
  
"We...."  
  
Before Vance could finish Gibbs' phone went off. He answered it in that usual laconic Gibbs style. "Abby's waiting for us in the lab," he said.  
  
"Go on ahead," Vance answered. "And Gibbs..." He pointed a finger. "Make sure your team is heading out to the Shenandoah Park within the hour." He eyed me and added, "Take the long way. I don't want to have to explain how you got all the way out there without an agency vehicle."  
  
As Vance walked out I let a faux disgusted expression come to my face. "Oh, that takes all of the fun out of it," I said.  
  
Gibbs replied as you might have expected. He ignored me entirely and motioned for Liara and I to follow him to the lift.  
  
  
  
  
Metal music was blaring down the hall as we approached Abby's lab in one of the immediate basement levels. Liara gave me a quizzical look. "Abby has particular interests and tastes," I explained.  
  
"Oh."  
  
The rest of Gibbs' team was waiting for us in the lab when we got there. The moment Gibbs cleared the door and I was distinctly visible I had their full attention.  
  
"You're back!" Abby rushed up and soon I was the subject of a world famous Abby hug. "I've missed you!"  
  
"And I you, Abby," I answered, keeping a chipper tone and imagining that if not for my Time Lordiness the hug would be cracking ribs.  
  
"Nice threads, Doc. Going for purple now. I like it." Abby trned her head. "Woh. Someone's rocking the hair dye," Abby said upon seeing Liara.  
  
"It's not real," Liara replied.  
  
I gave a nod. "Yes, Liara's an Asari, she's just wearing the holobelt for the sake of everyone else around."  
  
"Huh." Tony DiNozzo was looking over Liara as well, in that way he couldn't help. "So she's what, another green alien babe?"  
  
Liara looked at me. "He's talking about Janias," I answered. "Agent DiNozzo has a weakness for ladies."  
  
"I'm not green," Liara said to him, having clearly heard my warning.  
  
Tony apparently didn't mind the tone in her voice, continuing on as he usually did. "What about blue hair? Got something like..."  
  
"I don't actually have hair," Liara sighed, looking at me with some exasperation.  
  
"So what...."  
  
Before Tony could finish the line, Gibbs' hand slapped the back of his head. "Sorry boss" was the automatic response he gave.  
  
"We're headed out to Shenandoah State Park," Gibbs said. He looked to the others. "Get your gear and the car, I'll catch up with you."  
  
"Uh, boss...." Timothy McGee pointed to me. "He has a ship that can travel anywhere almost instantaneously. Why are we going out in a car?"  
  
"Because, McGee, having an NCIS field team show up in the middle of nowhere with no visible transportation would be hard to explain," Gibbs explained with a tone that made it clear how disappointed he was that McGee hadn't figured it out.  
  
"Exactly," Tony said. He motioned to McGee and to Ziva David, the fourth member of their merry little band. "Alright probies, follow me."  
  
I raised my eyebrow at that. "Probies plural?"  
  
"Yeah." Tony pointed to them. "Probie McGee and Probie David."  
  
"Really? Well." I nodded to Ziva, realizing what he meant. She had apparently immigrated and joined the agency. "Congratulations are in order, I suppose. Already gotten your citizenship."  
  
The reply I received was a slight smile from her. "Thank you, Doctor. Yes, I have."  
  
I said nothing else while Gibbs' team filed out. Gibbs leveled a patient look at Abby, who nodded and walked us over to her computers and the screens beyond. Liara looked around, taking in not just the equipment but the ways Abby had personalized her working space. "Your lab is quite... exceptional," she said. "You have interesting tastes."  
  
"There are many labs like it, but this one is mine," Abby said, showing a quirky grin. She was quoting a movie as well, or at least paraphrasing it. "So, I ran the DNA from those bones down in the morgue and compared it to what we have on record for Lieutenant Varner." She tapped a key and her screen displayed the results. It informed us, with nice blinking letters, that it was a complete match. "Those bones belong to Lieutenant Varner."  
  
"There's no doubt, then?"  
  
"I've told you a hundred times, Gibbs, DNA doesn't lie." Abby shook her head. "As crazy as it sounds, this guy's body time-traveled into the past."  
  
"That's not the biggest question," I said.  
  
"You mean, did he die in this time or back then?", Abby asked.  
  
"No," Gibbs said. "Who or what killed him?" Gibbs turned and looked at me. "You're the expert here, Doctor. Any ideas?"  
  
"Possibilities and conjectures without more data," I answered. "There are many species and civilizations, even beings, that can time travel. It could be anything from rogue time travelers quieting a witness to an alien species experimenting with temporal devices."  
  
As I thought on it, another matter came to my head. "Tell me... was there any record of items found on his person? I imagine cellular phones or GPS devices might raise eyebrows so long before their introduction."  
  
Abby looked back to the computer, tapped a few keys, and brought up some of the reports. She examined them closely. "Not according to anything from the 1960 reports. He was found with his clothes, a water canteen, and his compass."  
  
"No cell phone? No hiker's pack or something like GPS equipment?" I furrowed my brow.  
  
"Gives us something to look for," Gibbs said. "I'll see you out at the Park."  
  
"Keep the phone on you, I can use it to lock on to your location and materialize straight there," I said. "In the meantime..." I held out the sonic screwdriver. "Abby, do bring up satellite imagery from that area. I'm going to tie your satellites into the TARDIS and run some scans."  
  
As the results showed on the screen, I pondered possibilities. Some were much worse than others, but there were few that I liked. My concentration on the issue was visible on my face, which apparently prompted Abby to ask, "So, how bad is it?"  
  
"Could be very, very bad," I admitted. "Very bad indeed."  
  
"Yeah." She remained quiet for another moment before asking, "How is Layom Station?"  
  
"Oh, they're fine. Doctor L'gul'pala extends her greetings."  
  
"How are those spawnlings of her's?"  
  
"Wait." Liara blinked. "You know the doctors on Layom Station?"  
  
"Well, yeah." Abby smiled. "The Doctor and I had a really crazy time there, with the techno-organic zombies and everything."  
  
Liara looked at me quizzically. "To that's why they always do favors for you?"  
  
"Well... yes and no. I do try to give them return services," I explained. "But yes, my first visit there was during a time when Jan and Cami were vacationing and I took Abby on a little vacation of her own."  
  
"Running from a horde of techno-organic zombies was not really a vacation," Abby noted. "But I've still had worse."  
  
"Yes. About that... I see Gibbs still doesn't know?"  
  
"What makes you say that?"  
  
"The fact he didn't inflict some kind of bodily harm on me over the incident," I remarked drolly.  
  
"Good point." Abby looked over the map I'd put on her screen. "So, those little bits of red are time portals or something?"  
  
"Pockets of temporal distortion," I answered. "Signs of someone or something traveling through time, or otherwise some sort of time shifting going on." I narrowed my eyes. "Although not as big as I would have thought for an event that could put a person back in time. Hrm." I looked to Abby. "You can access other government databases, yes?"  
  
"A lot, yeah," she answered. "What are you looking for?"  
  
"Disappearances," I said. "All disappearances linked to this area since the Crack opened."  
  
"That might take a while. I'm going to have to sort through..." She stopped and looked at me, narrowing her eyes. "You're about to hook the TARDIS up to do the search, aren't you?"  
  
"Guilty as charged," I said, smiling. "I could really use the answer, Abby."  
  
"Fine, just don't make the network go hinky, okay?"  
  
"Right," I pledged.  
  
  
  
  
Some time later I materialized the TARDIS by a trail leading through the Shenandoah State River Park. I stepped out in time to see Tony along the path, looking over things. "Nice drive?", I asked.  
  
"Like any drive out here," Tony said. "Long and boring."  
  
"I suppose you could let Agent David drive," I remarked.  
  
Tony looked at me like I'd gone mad. "Boring is better than dead," he informed me bluntly.  
  
I smirked. Tony looked beyond me to where Liara stepped out, her forearm up and her omni-tool on. "Woh," he said. "What's that? Some kind of space-age arm cast?"  
  
"It's an omni-tool," Liara replied. "I'm using it to scan for electronic emissions like your cell phones use."  
  
"Oh. Nice. Looks like something from a high budget sci-fi movie."  
  
"Where are the others?", I asked.  
  
"They went off the path," Tony answered. "Ziva said she found a track that looked pretty new. If you go up past that tree line you might be able to see them."  
  
"Right." I took a couple of steps off the path before turning back. "Did you ever find the transportation the Lieutenant used?"  
  
"Yeah, his car. Didn't have much in it, nothing to prove if he was out here for something other than hiking."  
  
"I see." I nodded to Liara. "Let's move along."  
  
We walked off the path and ascended the soft earth and hard roots of larger trees to get to the top of what looked like a small ridge line. I could just make out Gibbs' silver hair about two hundred yards away and downward and moved as quickly as I safely could to catch up to him. I ran into Timothy first. "Any luck?", I asked.  
  
"Not yet," he said. "No sign of any of Varner's missing things."  
  
"I see. Carry on, i suppose."  
  
We found Gibbs looking over a map of the park. "No luck so far?" I asked.  
  
"Haven't found anything definite yet," he answered. "Someone's been through here recently, though." He looked at me. "Anything on your end?"  
  
"Varner's not the only victim," I said, offering him a folder full of printed photos and papers. "In the last few years, there have been several missing persons cases that authorities linked to this park in some way. Hikers, mostly. One park ranger. If anything is found, it's usually a discarded cell phone or the like."  
  
"Any of them found as dead bodies in the past?"  
  
"Abby's cross-checking the data now," I answered. "This is too much coincidence. The stats don't line up right compared to the examples of other parks."  
  
"I was afraid you'd say that," Gibbs muttered before pulling up his binoculars to look through them. "Well, might as well earn that shiny civilian consultant badge and help out."  
  
"I'm scanning for electronic signals," Liara said, "but I'm not getting anything."  
  
"You wouldn't," Gibbs answered her. "Modern doodads like cell phones don't stay on for this long. The battery would be dead."  
  
"Really?" Liara looked at me. "They go out that quickly?"  
  
"Without charging, yes," I said. "And they don't have the technology for long-term portable energy generators and the like."  
  
"Oh." Liara tapped several keys on her omni-tool. "I'll swap to another scanning system then."  
  
Gibbs eyed her omni-tool with some disdain. "Something like that really works?", he asked.  
  
"Hard-light machinery and displays," I answered. "Very nifty technology, actually. Can do anything from act as a phone to generating an omni-blade. The right models can even send out fireballs, electric shocks, or cryo-effect fields."  
  
"Huh." Gibbs turned away and started running his eyes over the area. Ahead of us Ziva was in the brush so deeply I could barely make out her head. "I don't like this."  
  
"What?", I asked, stepping up beside him. Even as I did, i thought I could feel something... off. The hairs on my neck stood up on their ends. "What is it?"  
  
"Not sure. I just don't like this." Gibbs pulled out a radio. "DiNozzo?"  
  
" _Yeah boss?_ "  
  
"Find anything?"  
  
" _Not yet._ "  
  
"Then get over here and join us," he said. "Now."  
  
I could sense the dissatisfaction in Tony's voice as he confirmed the order.  
  
Liara was now moving her forearm slowly, as if to point the omni-tool in all directions. "Give me a moment, " she said. "I think I'm picking up something. Right over.... h-"  
  
"Here!" Ziva shot up from the underbrush, from the direction Liara was starting to point, and held a device up. We walked toward her as she came toward us. "It's Varner's," she said, indicating an attached sticker that read "Property of Lt. Kyle Varner USN".  
  
"One of those GPS devices, right?", Gibbs asked her.  
  
Ziva looked it over. "It looks like it. If we can charge it again it might show us the Lieutenant's path."  
  
I nodded and took out the sonic screwdriver. It whirred happily and shined purple over the hiking device, which flashed to life. A map of the area popped up on it. Ziva ran her fingertips over the controls and a solid line showed, zigging and zagging through the park all the way back to the parking area. Another press showed the relative speed. "Looks like he started to run right about here." She indicated a section of the main trail, where the device showed Varner's pace turning into a run."  
  
"Something must have scared him," Liara noted. "For him to flee like that."  
  
I did not like the sound of that. "Let's fellow the trail then."  
  
We met Tony along the way back and followed the trail that the device said Varner had taken. It led us along the undergrowth and between trees. Insects started to buzz around us, prompting frustration from Tony and irritation from Liara. "We don't take well to insect bites," Liara noted.  
  
"You'll be fine," I answered, swatting at what I thought was a mosquito trying to settle on my neck.  
  
We had made it almost back to the main trail when Liara held a hand up. "There's another device of some sort over here." She slipped ahead of us and slightly deviated from the track. She knelt down beside a bush, Ziva standing beside her. She let her omni-tool disappeared so she could look with both hands.  
  
"Don't touch it," Gibbs called out. "Unless you've got gloves."  
  
Liara looked back at him and sighed, pulling a pair of her gloves out of her trouser pockets and fitting them on her hands. Shortly she stood up, holding a device in her hand. It was... well, had been a cell phone, one of those smartphones Humans had all the rage for in the early 21st Century.  
  
Had been, because the screen was smashed and the phone looked like it had been crushed.  
  
"That was intentional, boss," Timothy said. "No way that damage is from falling."  
  
"I figured that would be true, McGee," Gibbs sighed. "Bag it and tag it."  
  
Ziva handled that, having already pulled out an evidence pouch. Liara dropped the crushed phone into the bag. "There's no actual sign this belongs to Lieutenant Varner," Liara pointed out.  
  
"Maybe not, but it was still deliberately destroyed," Gibbs answered. "My gut tells me it's linked."  
  
"Good enough for me," I said quietly. Seeing Liara's bemused expression I said, "Very good thing to rely on, Gibbs' gut. I swear the man has a sixth sense."  
  
"I'm following your lead," Liara said, her bemusement forming a grin on her face.  
  
We continued on to the main trail and soon Ziva was moving ahead and looking into the nearby underbrush formed under a tree. When she came back out, she held up a hiker's pack. Clear lettering on one panel of it showed the name "Kyle Varner". She opened it and looked inside. "His wallet is in here," she said. "And a cell phone. Some food."  
  
"Makes sense, Tony said. "No point in carrying your phone with how bad signals are out here."  
  
"Yeah." Gibbs took out his own pack of evidence bags and quickly aided Ziva in packing them all away.  
  
They were just finished when Ziva whipped around. For a moment we were all quiet. "What is it, Ziva?", I heard Gibbs say in a low voice.  
  
"We're being watched," Ziva answered.  
  
"You're sure of that?"  
  
"I am."  
  
I watched Gibbs ponder that. "Yeah," he finally said. "So am I." He looked back to the rest of us. "Alright, we're going back to Washington. We've gotten enough done here for now."  
  
"I'll meet you there," I said.  
  
They started to walk back toward the parking lot while Liara and I headed back toward the forest, following the path to where I kept the TARDIS.  
  
I unlocked it and Liara stepped in first. But before I did, I stopped. There was something... wrong. Gibbs had felt it, Ziva had felt it, and I was feeling it. Something, someone, was out here. Watching us.  
  
The hairs on my neck were standing on end. I saw Liara look back at me and give me a wondering look. "What...?"  
  
I shushed her with a finger over my mouth. I slipped my hand under my jacket and unhooked the sonic disruptor in a slow, steady movement. I felt my hearts begin to pick up in their beating as a hundred horrible possibilities crossed my mind.  
  
Then, in one movement, I whirled about and held the sonic disruptor up. "Alright, I know you're there!", I shouted.  
  
Silence answered me.  
  
Absolute silence.  
  
"Doctor, is something there?" I could sense Liara's biotic energy starting to build up a she prepared it for use.  
  
After several moments of silence I answered "No" and shut the TARDIS door. I walked up to the controls and pulled back the activation lever.  
  
  
  
  
Due to the time travel component, we arrived back at the Navy Yard shortly after Gibbs and his team did, and so we all met in their squadroom. The sky outside was starting to turn twilight and we had the room to ourselves. "So," Tony sighed, "another day out in the middle of nowhere and what do we have to show for it?"  
  
"More than we did before we went out there," Gibbs remarked from his desk.  
  
I was busy looking at the path Varner had taken. The point at where he'd openly started to flee remained on my mind. "He fled from here and made it... here." i pointed to the end of the line on the map. "Do we know where his body was found in 1960?"  
  
"They didn't have GPS positioning back then," Timothy answered, looking over the relevant report from 1960. "Going by the description left by the people who found him, it was closer to the trail, north of where the GPS tracker was dropped."  
  
"That explains the lack of temporal energy on it," I mused.  
  
"Still no idea what sent him back?", Gibbs asked me.  
  
"None," I answered. "There are a lot of things it could be. All of them frightening. Some... rather more frightening than the others."  
  
"Frightening in what way?", Ziva asked me.  
  
"Well, for one thing, time travel technology is dangerous," I said. "Not just in what you could cause with the time travel itself, but the consequences of a time travel device malfunctioning. You can tear up space-time, leave permanent rifts in the spatial fabric of an area, all sorts of horrid things. Mix changes to history in with it and you can turn any specific point in space-time into a ticking time bomb." I noticed Tony about to open his mouth and added, "If you quote Doctor Brown at all, Tony, I will slap you on the head."  
  
"Huh. I was thinking about some other movie. Can't remember it, but I remember one of the characters talking about the universe exploding if they time-traveled."  
  
"Ah." I nodded. "Well, it's a safe attitude, if not entirely accurate."  
  
There was some more quiet. When it wouldn't pass, i looked back to Ziva. "What did you feel out there?", I asked. "When you said we were being watched?"  
  
"it was instinct," Ziva answered. "There was someone there."  
  
"Maybe it was invisible space aliens," Tony joked. "Klingons or something."  
  
I made a "harumph" sound. "Klingons and time travel don't go together very well," I mused. "Besides, they're not big fans of it."  
  
Tony directed a look at me. "Wait? You're saying Klingons are..."  
  
"Sixth dimensional spacey-wacey quantum physics, DiNozzo," I sighed. "Just about everything exists in the Multiverse. Your cosmos just happens to be one of those in a more stable fifth dimensional structure. It's harder for certain things to exist here. That's why you _don't_ have ghosts and wizards and metahumans and all the other kinds of exotic stuff I run into regularly."  
  
"You run into any other 'cosmos' like our's?", Timothy asked. "I mean, it can't all be the weird stuff, can it?"  
  
I nodded. "Not many, I admit." I smiled slightly. "Did work a case with Sherlock Holmes. Funny thing is, it involved a Crack as well."  
  
"Wait, repeat that?" Tony sat up in the chair. "You worked with _Sherlock Holmes?_ "  
  
"Yes. A murder case. Had an alien called a Silent that complicated matters." I looked at him. "Now those are some scary ones. I still don't directly remember much about talking to it. They have an auto-hypnotic effect tied to their appearance, if you see them and then take your eyes off them... you forget them."  
  
"Really?", Ziva asked. "You just... forget them?"  
  
"Yes," I said. "It's why I had half my arm marked with black ink, to remind myself I'd seen one."  
  
"Okay, now that is creepy," Tony admitted. "So..."  
  
There was a sound of a clearing throat from the fourth desk. "These field reports aren't going to write themselves," Gibbs remarked. I looked back in time to see him level a look at me that just about said "Stop distracting my team".  
  
Tony lowered his head back to his desk and picked up his pen. "Right boss."  
  
Liara stepped up beside me. "You should probably let them work."  
  
"I suppose," I sighed.  
  
"You seem jumpy," she said, keeping her voice low. "Something about this has you worried."  
  
"A lot of it does," I said. "This isn't a world well-equipped to deal with the kind of threats that can cause temporal dislocations like that."  
  
"You'll figure it out," Liara promised. "You always do."  
  
"Somehow, I don't think figuring it out is going to..."  
  
There was a ringing from Gibbs' phone. He reached down and picked it up. "Gibbs," he said. He began to stand. "That's it?"  
  
"Boss?" Timothy looked up.  
  
"Send them to McGee's phone," Gibbs ordered. "Anything else?"  
  
I could hear Abby informing Gibbs about what other data she was trying to glean from the destroyed cell phone. Timothy noticed his phone light up and picked it up. His thumbs ran over the screen a few times. "Only a few pictures survived," he said. "Kind of weird, though..." He held it up toward me. "What do you th-..."  
  
I had looked over to the image as he started that sentence. By the time he reached what would have been "think", I was lunging forward. I tore Timothy's cell phone from his hand and ran my thumb over the screen, deleting the photo before he could finish protesting "Hey!"  
  
Everyone was starting to look toward me. I tossed Timothy the cellphone back and rushed over to Gibbs where I promptly _yanked the phone from his hand._  
  
Yes. That was how agitated, how fearful, I was. I ripped something from the hand of freaking Leroy Jethro Gibbs himself. That would be something akin to brandishing iron around Queen Mab or throwing away good food around Kyoko Sakura or calling Granny Weatherwax "Esme" or "Esmeralda" when your name isn't Gytha Ogg. It's... it's something you _don't do_.  
  
The moment I had it to my head I shouted, "Abby, do you have those pictures on your monitor?!"  
  
There was a moment of confusion from the other end. "... _wha? Doctor, what is...?_ "  
  
"Abby, this is important! Delete those photos _now_!"  
  
" _Well... okay, I'll go...._ " I could hear a sudden intake of breath on the other end.  
  
At the table, Gibbs gave me a glare that was terminal annoyance mixed with clear bewilderment at my sudden actions.  
  
I realized my breath had nearly stopped as well. "Abby?!"  
  
" _It's... it's coming out of the screen! Out of the screen! How..._ "  
  
"Abby." I swallowed and forced myself to breathe. "Abby, listen to me. I need you to listen to every word I say and do exactly what I tell you to. Keep your eyes on that thing, okay? Keep your eyes on it. Don't look into its eyes, just... just look at its chest or arm or something. Just not into its the eyes. But _keep your eyes on it at all times._ " I inhaled again. "And whatever you do, Abby..." My voice turned hoarse from the terror I felt, my fear for Abby's life. " _Don't blink._ "  
  
" _...what do you... ohmygodohmygod!_ "  
  
"Abby?!", I repeated.  
  
" _It moved! It moved toward me, I just blinked and..._ "  
  
"Abby, _don't blink!_ ", I repeated. "I'm on my way. Just don't blink!"  
  
"What the hell is going on?", Gibbs demanded in a very low and dangerous tone. By the time he finished the sentence I was already running past Ziva's desk, on my way to the lift.  
  
"Abby's in terrible danger!", I shouted back. Liara was coming up behind me and the rest of Team Gibbs were standing from their chairs.  
  
"Doctor, what's wrong?", Timothy shouted, starting to run after us. "What was that thing?!"  
  
I pulled the sonic screwdriver out and used it to summon the lift. As it arrived Timothy jumped in front of me and grabbed my arms. "What is it?", he asked. "What's happening to Abby?"  
  
I swallowed. Out of all of the terrible possibilities that the Varner case had presented to me, this one... this one was about the worst one I imagined possible.  
  
I took a breath. "It's a Weeping Angel," I answered Timothy, unable to keep some of the fear from my voice. "Abby's trapped in her lab with a _Weeping Angel_."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our narrator, Liara, and Team Gibbs race to thwart the Weeping Angels' invasion of NCIS headquarters.

The lift doors opened and I stomped in, Liara and Timothy McGee behind me. McGee was frantically operating his phone, trying to get a call out. Just before the doors closed Gibbs appeared in the entryway and joined us. The doors closed behind him. He fixed an intent look upon me. "Let's try this again. _What is going on_?"  
  
"Abby is trapped with a Weeping Angel," I explained. "They're a... they're a predator species, and at their core they are more energy and information than they are physical." I jammed the button again.  
  
"How did one get into the lab past all of our security?"  
  
"It didn't need to." I swallowed and urged the lift to move faster. "They're partly information. If you have the image of an Angel, that image _becomes_ an Angel..."  
  
The door opened and I shot past Gibbs and into the hall. I ran down it to the door to the lab... now closed and locked. "Abby!", I shouted. "Abby, can you open the door?!"  
  
I could faintly hear her on the other side. " _I can't get to it!_ "  
  
"Bloody hell," I muttered, getting my sonic screwdriver out. I ran it over the controls for the lock. My eyes widened. "That's impossible," I rasped. "It's deadlocked! The door's got a deadlock seal!"  
  
McGee, frantic as well, was already trying to input a code. "The code isn't working, it's not opening!"  
  
I kept running the sonic around, but there was no way for it to work. The Angel had erected a deadlock seal around the entire lab. "Abby!", I shouted. "Abby, get whatever space you can and don't blink!"  
  
"Get clear!", Liara shouted at us. I grabbed Timothy by the lapel of his jacket and hauled him clear, expecting what came next. Blue energy formed around Liara's body. The holobelt disengaged to avoid being shorted out by the biotic energy coursing around her, revealing Liara's actual form as an Asari. With nary a sound of effort she channeled an intense biotic surge into the door. The dark matter energy overwhelmed the door's structure and blew it off the hinges.  
  
I rushed in. Abby had retreated toward her lab office and the ballistics lab beyond and the Angel was facing her, arms raised and claws extended.  
  
It was not alone. It was obviously coming from the left monitor on Abby's desk. The right monitor and the large plasma had come alive as well now, and both showed the same image; the Angel from the cell phone's picture. And two more Angels were now evident. Looking right at us.  
  
"Goddess," Liara whispered tensely.  
  
"Don't blink." I focused my eyes on their necks. "Don't look in their eyes and _don't blink_."  
  
I had practiced this before, as soon as I realized the pattern of the Cracks leading to creatures from the home cosmos of Gallifrey coming through. But practice... isn't always the same as application. I managed to keep my concentration long enough that I didn't blink for about half a minute, during which time I slipped further into the lab.  
  
The moment I blinked, the Angel closest to my side moved, but only incrementally. I had to fight from blinking in confusion before I realized that, of course, with McGee and Gibbs and Liara all looking in, the Angels weren't getting the time they needed to really move. _Someone_ had open eyes virtually every moment.  
  
"Doctor?" Abby's voice quavered with quite a bit of terror. "What are they?"  
  
"Weeping Angels," I answered. "Hold on, Abby." I held out the sonic and tried to remotely short out the monitors. Unsurprisingly, they were deadlocked sealed as well. I pulled out my sonic disruptor and went for a kinetic blast.  
  
I ended up being thrown back into the wall.  
  
"Doctor!", I heard Liara cry out. I forced my eyes open in time to catch the nearest Angel having nearly closed the entire distance. I stared into its digitally-enhanced stone face, its fangs out and fingers now claws. I kept my eyes focused on the fangs lest I peek into the eyes. "I'm watching the third."  
  
"I'm looking at the one facing Abby," McGee reported. His voice had a hint of nervous tension to it, but suffused with deadly seriousness.  
  
"Try not to blink," I urged, even as I struggled to follow that advice. My eyes were starting to hurt and I was desperate in refusing a look in the eye to the thing. "And don't look it in the eye."  
  
"Not easy," he answered.  
  
"So, what do we do now?", Liara asked.  
  
"We have to remove the images," I said. "Where is Gibbs..."  
  
Sudden thundercracks filled the air, followed by showers of sparks as the computer monitors and large plasma screen exploded one by one. The Angel facing me distorted for a moment and vanished abruptly. I let myself blink finally with my eyes feeling strained and weary.  
  
"Clear," Gibbs said, stepping between McGee and Abby. He swept his sidearm, its barrel still smoking, around the lab as he said so. He moved toward Abby, who started scrambling toward him.  
  
Another Angel suddenly appeared, this one in Abby's office, coming from the computer monitor there. Abby fell back into Gibbs' legs to get away from the creature.  
  
This time Liara acted first with a powerful burst of biotics that tore the monitor apart, sending more sparks flying.  
  
"Are there any other monitors or screens in here?", I asked Abby. "Anything the Angel might have used to copy itself?"  
  
"I... I don't think so," she stammered. "There's nothing else directly connected to the network."  
  
I rushed throughout the lab anyway, checking every piece of equipment and making damn sure the Angel hadn't managed to take anything else over.  
  
And, since I wanted to be sure, I called out "Sorry, Abigail" before using the sonic to overload every screen in the lab anyway.  
  
"What... what was that?" Abby looked at me with eyes still wet with tears. Her complexion, always so light, had become truly white as a ghost. "How...how did it...?"  
  
"Weeping Angels can't be shown as images," I said. "The image of an Angel _becomes_ an Angel." I swallowed and looked to GIbbs, who was reaching for his phone. "That was quick thinking. I don't think the Angel realized its defenses couldn't stop bullets from shattering the screens."  
  
"Figured that." After that laconic reply Gibbs brought the phone up to his ear.  
  
McGee helped Abby to her feet. "It didn't hurt you, did it?"  
  
"No," she said. "Not... not physically. I'm going to have nightmares though."  
  
I nodded sympathetically. The Angels were the thing of nightmares.  
  
And then a horrible thought occurred to me. I took Abby and drew her close, looking into her eyes as panic swelled inside of me. "Did you look into its eyes' Abby? Please, tell me you didn't."  
  
"I... I don't think so, I just sort of... sort of focused on his neck or cheek," Abby stammered. "Why? What's... what's wrong?"  
  
I kept looking and, when done with that, I put my hand on her face and gently opened a telepathic connection. Her panic and fear filled me and threatened to bring back mine, but I forced it aside as I sensed for foreign presences.  
  
"Hey!" McGee pulled me away from her. "What the hell are you doing?!"  
  
"Making sure the Angel didn't get into her head," I answered. I drew in a breath that became a sigh of relief. "I don't think it did. You... if you look into the Angel's eyes, it can get into your head. An image of the Angel appears in your visual center and behaves just like the ones in your monitor did. It can make you hallucinate, it can speak with you, and eventually..." I swallowed. "It kills you."  
  
"Ohmygod ohmygod..." Abby brushed at her disheveled hair. "I don't think I did. I just moved my eyes over it, I mean."  
  
I nodded. "As long as you didn't maintain eye-to-eye contact. They try for that if they're not sure they can get to you."  
  
Before I could say more, Gibbs was dashing out of the door. And seeing that gave me a sick, very sick feeling to my stomach.  
  
"Abby." I swallowed. "Your computers. They're hooked into the whole NCIS network, right?"  
  
"Well... yeah," Abby said. Her eyes widened. "You don't think..."  
  
"I think it did." I pointed to Liara. "Liara, can you stay and help Abby interface with her computer systems? We need to get the NCIS network isolated from the rest of their global communications before that Angel can spread further!"  
  
"Right." Liara promptly activated her omni-tool and stepped up to Abby's main workstations. "I'm tying into their systems now." A flat image appeared above the omni-tool. She had turned it into a new monitor for the computers. "I'm keeping this isolated form my systems just in case."  
  
"Abby, delete _everything_ in the system that has that thing," I said. "Pictures. Any surveillance camera feeds. Anything."  
  
"I can do the pictures from the cell phones," she said. "But I'd need Director Vance's clearance to delete the camera recordings."  
  
"You can't do it yourself?"  
  
"He has special codes," she explained.  
  
"Oh." I bit into my lip. "Liara, look into them. Crack them."  
  
Liara shot me a glance. "Are you sure that's wise?"  
  
"Eminently so," I said. "Vance can fire me if he disapproves." I grabbed McGee by the arm. "Come with me."  
  
"Where are we going?"  
  
"The squadroom," I answered. "Because if I'm right, Tony and Ziva are surrounded by Angels right now."  
  
  
  
  
There are times I hate being right.  
  
We arrived as a gunshot rang out and sparks flew. I walked out of the lift with my sonic disruptor raised. McGee had his sidearm out.  
  
The image was visible on every intact screen. Every intact monitor. And they were all gathering around the middle of the squadroom, where Tony and Ziva stood back to back with their guns up. A wisp of smoke was still visible at the end of Ziva's barrel. "Whoever is there, cut the power!", she shouted.  
  
"It won't do any good," I said, "the Angel can harden the connections." I pointed my sonic disruptor to the nearest monitor but thought better of it. The Angel clearly knew how to deflect its energies as well as nullify my sonics. I moved toward the center of the squadroom. I swallowed at seeing the hole created in the ring of Angels around Tony and Ziva. "Don't blink!"  
  
"I'm trying!", Tony complained. And he promptly blinked. Had I not been watching the Angels around him, they would have advanced further. "It's like living in a horror movie!"  
  
"Welcome to my world," I muttered, considering my options. Sonics were out. That left....  
  
McGee's gun barked out down the way. Another Angel disappeared. "Looks like it's the brute force approach," I said, lifting the disruptor again. But instead of using it to emit energy, I used it as a club and smashed the monitor on Tony's desk. Another Angel vanished.  
  
It's not hard to smash or shoot monitors. Doing that while keeping your eyes focused and unblinking on the monsters that are within lunging distance of you? That is a whole new level of difficulty. It involves a lot of slipping around, moving your head, that sort of thing. And not blinking. That's always an important part.  
  
When we were done, not a single monitor in the squadroom was working. But there was no rest to be had yet. Without a word the three agents went for the stairs leading to the second level. "God, I hope Vance doesn't take this out of our pay," Tony lamented from the mid-way platform on the stairs, as he looked out briefly at the squadroom full of shattered monitors and plasma screens.  
  
And a thought occurred to me. "Doesn't Vance have a screen in his office?", I asked.  
  
They stopped and turned toward me. "Probie 2, go with him to check on the Director," Tony ordered Ziva. "Probie 1, we're checking MTAC."  
  
Ziva nodded. "Right."  
  
We split off from them, heading down the corridors leading to the Director's office. In the receptionist room we found no one present and the monitor on. An Angel stood in the doorway of the office beyond, arms raised in a hostile posture, evidently frozen as its quantum lock engaged upon our arrival. Ziva wasted no time in putting a bullet into the monitor, which exploded into sparks.  
  
Further inside there was another pair of Angels. They had Vance cornered away from the door. He was armed only with a blunt object, a paperweight from his desk, and watching each Angel carefully. "What the hell is going on?!", he shouted.  
  
"Director, watch them!", Ziva shouted. "They don't move if they're being watched!"  
  
"I figured that out, Agent David!"  
  
"And whatever you do, don't stare in their eyes!", I added. We moved up to the open door. The Angels were within a foot of grabbing Vance, but couldn't move with us watching them. Vance couldn't get out without making contact with them, though, and that was not a reasonable risk. Ziva put a bullet into the flatscreen monitor on his table and promptly turned and put one into the flatscreen.  
  
I grimaced at the repeated gunshots. They grow tiring after a while.  
  
The Angels in the room disappeared. Vance, well, he looked like he was fighting to keep composure given he was just fighting creatures that were coming out of every screen in his room. His eyes were wide and intent on me while he regained his breath. "Okay. _What in the hell was that?_ "  
  
"Who else is in the headquarters?", I asked. "I'll explain everything, but we need to make sure everyone is safe."  
  
"It's after hours and I had the other teams clear out so you could work," Vance answered. "Doctor Mallard is probably still..."  
  
"...here."  
  
We turned and saw him enter with Gibbs, looking rather rattled himself. "I sent Jimmy home. A good choice, it seems," Ducky said, breathing hard. "Might I ask what's going on?"  
  
"Are there any other active monitors here?", I asked. "In the building, I mean."  
  
"Nope." Gibbs seemed to be slightly amused. "We don't have a monitor or screen left in the entire building."  
  
I drew in a breath and wiped at my forehead. "Alright," I said. "Well, that settles that problem."  
  
Vance had regained enough composure to put some steel back into his voice. " _What_ problem?", he demanded.  
  
"The problem of the predatory species prowling around the Shenandoah Valley killing people and sending them into the past to feed on the resulting temporal energy," I remarked drolly. Seeing his irritated look I sighed. "This is going to take some explaining. We should get the others and meet in Abby's lab."  
  
"Fine." Vance looked back to the destroyed screen, sighed in irritation, and followed us out of his office.  
  
  
  
  
When we were all on the lab, I explained to them what Weeping Angels were. The whole quantum lock thing, never looking into their eyes, that kind of thing.  
  
"How many of these things are out there?", Vance asked. A reasonable query.  
  
"Could be one," I said. "Could be an entire colony of them," I replied. "And the trick will be finding them."  
  
"A lot of area," Gibbs agreed, looking at the screen hovering above Liara's omni-tool. She was acting as presenter while Abby did her usual thing at the keyboard. Right now the map showed the River Valley and the last known locations of all local missing persons cases. "Would be nice to find some way to narrow it down."  
  
"These... things come from your world, right?", McGee asked. "So that means the Crack in the Universe is how they got here?"  
  
"Likely," I said.  
  
"What if it was another of the side-cracks, like the one in the Rabb house?', he continued. "You could scan for it with the TARDIS, right?"  
  
I shook my head. "Not with accuracy. Not since we closed it."  
  
"So how do we catch them?", Vance asked. "How do we imprison them?"  
  
"A few methods," I said. "Plant them in front of mirrors, for instance."  
  
"Mirrors?" Tony looked at me. "To make these... Angel things see their reflection, right? And why are they called 'Weeping' Angels anyway?"  
  
Before I could reply, Ziva did. "Because they have to cover their faces around each other," she said. "As if they were weeping. Otherwise they would look at each other and be permanently frozen."  
  
"Exactly," I said.  
  
"If they're in a cave, could we collapse it?"  
  
"Well, yes," I answered Vance. "Of course, they might just dig their way back out. So it's probably not the best way. Can't shoot them either, not with anything I know of. No, the only way to stop them is to get them to look at each other or at their reflection, or to poison them with a time paradox."  
  
There was some brief silence. "The... mirror thing sounds easier," McGee provided. "Than the time paradox one."  
  
"Yes it does, McGee," I answered. "But you have to make sure that they're never allowed to lose sight of their reflection or each other, or the quantum lock will fade. That means you need storage area and persistent light through day and night." I shook my head. "But for now we need to figure out where they are in this area." I pointed to the map again. "We need more leads."  
  
"I might have something," Abby offered.  
  
We looked toward her. "What?"  
  
"I was checking the data I had from the crushed cell phone. Besides the picture of the horrible monsters, I mean." Abby tapped a few keys and the display hovering over Liara's omni-tool changed to show a list of names being compared to another. "I was able to recover data from the SIM card, enough to find a phone number, and I've traced that through the company to this guy." A picture hovered on one half of the screen. Aaron Lindquist, a dark-haired middle-aged man of broadly Scandinavian features. "Software engineer, hiking enthusiast. His adult daughter reported him missing about eight days ago."  
  
"So Mister Lindquist took that photograph of the Angel?", I asked.  
  
"Probably," Abby said. "And it gets better. His fingerprints are on file because the company he works for has done some work for the DOD." Abby brought up the fingerprints in question. "I just got a hit on them."  
  
"From?", asked Gibbs.  
  
"Prince George County Mental Health Hospital," Abby answered. "Patient Aaron Lundquist, 87 years old. Committed for senile dementia. Poor guy smashed up a room and they charged him."  
  
"Do you have a photo?", Vance asked.  
  
"Trying to get one now. The hospital records aren't very public, and..."  
  
"One moment." Liara brought her hand up to her omni-tool and started pressing keys. After several moments of the screen flashing through data the file of the elderly "Mister Lundquist" popped up.  
  
"Woh, how'd you do that?" Abby asked Liara.  
  
"It's a trade secret, you might say." Liara brought up the picture on her viewer and put it beside the picture of the missing Aaron Lindquist. "It's him," she said.  
  
"Certainly looks like it," Tony agreed.  
  
"Then we should get going." I looked to Vance. "Director, as much as I appreciate your desire to minimize the weirdness going on, I think it best if I drive this time."  
  
"Agreed." Vance nodded. "I'll try to arrange some assistance for you in..."  
  
"No," I snapped, turning back to face him. We eyed each other intently. "Listen. You called me here for a reason. This is the reason, Director. Your world is not equipped to deal with these things. If you send other federal agents or local police after the Angels, all you're doing is giving them more food. I'm the one who can deal with them."  
  
For a moment Vance seemed to be considering his options. "Alright," he said. "Are there any ways I can assist you?"  
  
"Make sure there are no images of that Angel left in your systems," I said. "And examine all of the other information from Lindquist's phone. If you can find any indication of GPS tracking being recorded, it might be helpful." I looked around. "You wouldn't happen to have any spare monitors we didn't have to destroy, would you? Because I might need Liara."  
  
"We checked the equipment room, the monitors there were fine."  
  
Vance nodded at Ziva. "It's settled then. Let's go get that monitor, and then you can all be on your way."  
  
  
  
  
The Mental Health Hospital was a two story facility along one of the secondary roads in the towns outside of Washington. I materialized the TARDIS and joined the others after Gibbs led them out. The wind was picking up a bit from the brisk weather, and where we were there was no shelter. "The roof?" Gibbs asked me.  
  
"Not as public as the parking lot," I answered. "And less likely to be seen than if we found a janitor's closet."  
  
He nodded. "Fine. Just hope we don't have anyone asking us why we're coming from the stairs."  
  
I smiled. "Oh, I think we can handle that." I looked to Tony. "DiNozzo."  
  
He looked back at me. "Yeah?"  
  
I reached into my pocket and handed him my psychic paper. "Psychic paper. Should we be spotted coming out of the stairwell, I'll leave it in your fine hands to be our distraction."  
  
Tony looked at the paper. "Sure... so I'm with...."  
  
"Local government, building code inspector," I answered. "Just bluff your way through."  
  
"McGee." Gibbs motioned at Tony with his head. "Assist."  
  
"Right boss," was the immediate reply.  
  
I checked to make sure the TARDIS was locked and looked at Liara. She made an annoyed expression, rolled her eyes, and reached for the holobelt. An image appeared over her, turning her blue skin to light and replacing her scalp crest with short, back-combed blue hair. "Happy?", she sighed.  
  
"Quite," I answered. "Let's go see Mister Lindquist."  
  
  
  
  
I could hear Tony continuing to play up the building inspector cover behind me when we entered the room assigned to "Aaron Lundquist". The poor man was on his last legs, breathing raspily as he lay in his bed. He looked like he should be in a medical hospital and not just a mental one. His eyes stared lazily at a screen showing a sitcom of some sort. He barely noticed our arrival. "Mister Aaron Lindquist?", I asked.  
  
There was a stirring in his eyes. He looked to us. "Lundquist," he corrected, his voice hoarse and frail.  
  
"We know who you are, Mister Lindquist," Gibbs said, moving to the other side of the bed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic evidence bag, which he held out in front of Lindquist. Inside the crushed cell phone reflected light from the lamp beside Lindquist's bed.  
  
His tired old blue eyes sharpened slightly. He reached a withered hand up and took the phone. For a moment he said nothing. And then.... then he started to weep. "I never thought I would see this again," he said, drawing in a hard breath. "It was a gift to me from my daughter." His voice, already weak from age, sounded like it was going to crack. "I knew I wasn't mad. I knew all this time. I... I knew they were real and had done this to me."  
  
"You mean the living statues that attacked you?", I asked.  
  
He nodded. "I took pictures. I... I thought they were stolen. But... but they... moved... Wasn't looking. Moving when I wasn't looking." His breathing picked up. Recalled terror twisted his face in horror. "Ran. Ran all I could. Couldn't get away."  
  
"They're fast," I said. "And they like to play with their food."  
  
The old man blinked at me. "Food?"  
  
"They ate your life, Mister Lindquist," I explained. "That's what the Weeping Angels do. Nicest psychopaths in the Multiverse, those things. They drop you into the past and feed on the energy of the time they took from you. And you..." I sighed. "...are left to build a new life as poor recompense for the life you've lost."  
  
Gibbs took the cell phone out of the evidence bag and handed it to Lindquist. The old man seemed to barely have the energy to hold the phone, but he did, and he cried as he did. "We need to know where you found the statues," Gibbs said.  
  
"You... what...?" The old man blinked his eyes at us in confusion. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"The things that sent you to the past. We're after them, Mister Lindquist," I said, keeping my tone low. I briefly looked back. Ziva was watching the door. Liara was recording us with her omni-tool. "They're still hunting people. They have to be stopped."  
  
"You can't," Lindquist said. Our eyes met. "They're too fast. Too fast. Couldn't run enough." He coughed and moaned. "Couldn't..."  
  
"We can," I assured him. "Please. We have to stop them. Or there will be other little girls out there like your daughter. Little girls that will lose their father."  
  
My words seemed to stir something inside of him. "What... what is it you want to know?", he wheezed.  
  
"What year was it? After the Angels got you?"  
  
He swallowed. "19... 1972."  
  
I frowned. Varner's body had been found a dozen years earlier. "Two, at least," I said to Gibbs. "There are at least two Angels."  
  
He nodded and asked, "Where were they?"  
  
"Off... off the trail. Ca-cave." Lindquist's breathing picked up. I saw him try to focus his mind through the haze of old age. "Old cave. Not open to... to visitors anymore."  
  
"Right," I said. "A cave." That didn't sound well to me. Angels hiding in a dark cave? That would be _tricky_.  
  
"Got inside of it. There was... rain. Went in where it was dark. Heard things. Came out... and they were there. At the mouth." In more halting words he described taking pictures of what he thought to be two winged statues as he walked around them at the mouth. And then he realized that they were moving.  
  
I hid the scowl I started to feel on my face. They had been _toying_ with the poor old man.  
  
"I ran," he said. "Ran. Ran ran ran. Lost my phone. I heard them... smash it." He swallowed. "Thought I'd gotten away. Turned to.. to the trail. And then... it was all wrong."  
  
"They got to you," I said. "Sent you back in time with a touch."  
  
"Thought I was insane," Lindquist said. "Thought I was mad. Hospitals. Doctors. Nurses. Drugs. Over and over again. Tried to... to move on.... can't."  
  
I nodded. Not everyone was going to end up working things out when stuck in the past. The experience had shattered Aaron Lindquist's mind.  
  
"Can you tell us more about the cave?" Gibbs asked. "How far from the trail was it? Was it near the main parking lot?"  
  
Lindquist began shaking his head. "I want my girl. I want my life," he wept. "I want it back. It's not fair. Not fair. Not fair!"  
  
Seeing his agitation I took his arm. "Please, sir... you must..."  
  
"I'm not mad!" he shouted. " _I'm not mad! I don't belong here! I... I don't..._ "  
  
His voice failed him. Lindquist sunk back into the bed, staring at us, eyes wild with panic and anger and grief.  
  
And then... nothing.  
  
And I heard the familiar sound of a death rattle come from his lungs as they moved for the last time.  
  
A loud tone filled the room from the machine beside his bed.  
  
Gibbs shot me a look. "That can't be coincidence," he said.  
  
"It's not," I answered. "He's... well, he's lucky he lasted so many days past the point he was sent back. Living past the day he was sent back... it causes a sort of resistance, as that is time the Angels fed from by displacing him. If the Angels were stronger, he wouldn't have lived this long, I think."  
  
Gibbs pulled his phone out. "I'll have Ducky and Palmer pick up the body."  
  
"Yes," I said. "That might be for the best."  
  
"Nurses are coming now," Ziva reported.  
  
"Well, we know where they are," I sighed. "A cave."  
  
"Now we just have to find out which one," Gibbs added, looking at me wryly.  
  
I didn't answer that we also had to find out how to explore the cave without getting turned into food ourselves.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our narrator and Team Gibbs enter the heart of the Weeping Angels nest in an effort to save the world. This is easier said than done when the nest is in the heart of a deep, dark cave.

Abby had a new monitor set up by the time we returned. "I heard about Mister Lindquist," she said. "Poor guy."  
  
"Very sad, yes," Ziva agreed. She looked at me. "How do you intend to find the cave he spoke about?"  
  
"I might be able to help with that." Abby turned back to her computer and started tapping and clicking away. "I was able to pull GPS data from the phone. I can reconstruct some of the route Mister Lindquist took."  
  
"Put it up, Abby," Gibbs ordered.  
  
"Yes sir, coming right up," she answered.  
  
I stepped up beside Gibbs to look over her shoulders. Normally everyone would look at the plasma screen beyond her work station, against the wall of the lab's front area, but it was shattered like every other monitor in the building. We watched the display narrow down on the River Park. A sporadic path formed, leading toward the mountain side and veering northeast in its final two updates. Time stamp data gave us a reference for Lindquist's likely route. "A bit of a gap around here," I remarked, pointing to one area. "Any caves there?"  
  
"Let me call up a map of caverns in the area and...." We watched Abby lay said map over the other. "Bingo," she said. "Looks like it was called Early's Cave, used to be open to visitors, but they closed it in 2002 because nobody really cared to visit it."  
  
"I don't see any other caves that would fall along the possible routes of those recovered GPS locations," I said to Gibbs. "What do you think?"  
  
"A couple, maybe," he answered. "If we weren't talking about a middle-aged software engineer."  
  
"The terrain is too rough for most people to go further in that window of time," Ziva added.  
  
"So." I nodded. "We have our suspect cave."  
  
"Now we just need a plan," Liara said.  
  
I nodded. And as one formed in my head, I turned to face her. "Correct, Liara." I smiled. "And that's where you will come in."  
  
  
  
  
For obvious reasons, we waited until daybreak to head to the park and the cave. "So, let me get this straight," I heard Tony say as we approached the cavern mouth. "We're going into a dark cave full of monsters that can only move if we can't see them. And because it's dark, we can't see them."  
  
"Yes," I said drolly.  
  
"I feel like I'm in a horror movie," he lamented. "A _bad_ horror movie."  
  
"DiNozzo..."  
  
"Shutting up, boss."  
  
We stopped at the entrance, where daylight still shined in. There was no sign of any Angels at the entrance. Whether that meant they had gone deeper into the cavern or had left it completely to hunt, I wasn't exactly sure of, but I believed my plan would work regardless.  
  
I held up the sonic and found what I was looking for. "They never removed the old lighting," I murmured.  
  
"They did disconnect the power, though," Tim pointed out.  
  
"Yes..." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small gray item, "A good thing I have a battery that will work, isn't it?" I walked over to the side of the cave mouth and found the end of the wiring for the cave's lighting system. I put the battery against the end of it, did a little work, and... "There we go," I said in a low voice, watching the lights come on along the cave walls. The pathway down was illuminated. "Let's go spelunking."  
  
"If I end up in the 19th Century, Doc, I''m blaming _you_ ," Tony said as we entered, Ziva and Gibbs taking point with Liara behind them in the position I'd requested she hold.  
  
The cave was... a cave. Nothing really special about it, at least as caves go. Not every cave can have a legendary dwarven king and his troll counterpart playing Thud, after all. Not that some of the stalagmites and stalactites weren't spectacular.  
  
"How deep is this cave supposed to be, McGee?", Gibbs asked.  
  
"According to records, about five hundred yards in the main shaft," Tim answered, consulting his cell. "There are four side-tunnels branching off at points. Three were considered too small for visitor safety."  
  
"Let's hope that's not where we need to go," II said. "Having to slip through single-file would be extraordinarily dangerous."  
  
"Our luck isn't always that good," Liara noted.  
  
Before any of us could respond, Ziva held up a hand. "Something's been here," she said. She moved ahead cautiously and we followed with equal care.  
  
I held out my sonic screwdriver to scan for what she might have been talking about. "Energy readings are growing. Whatever is here, it's further in the back."  
  
It was a tense walk down that mine. When we got toward the end of the main shaft, the line of lights changed, losing their brilliance. Another shaft, presumably the one large enough for visitors, branched off to our right side.  
  
"I'm guessing we have to go further?", Liara asked.  
  
"Obviously," Tony said. "This is a _really_ bad horror movie."  
  
"DiNozzo, do I need to give you another slap to the head?", Gibbs asked.  
  
"Oh, uh... no boss, that won't be necessary. Shutting up."  
  
We continued on into the side tunnel. My sonic registered the increasing indications of energy that was off. Residues of temporal energy were growing as we walked along the shaft.  
  
It opened into a grotto of sorts, a chamber carved in the rock millennia ago that offered us all some decent room. The gray-scaled rock walls spread out from us to grant us admittance into the open space. The light was now faint, so far down the power lines from where my battery was granting its energy to illuminate our way.  
  
But it was still strong enough to show us what was waiting for us.  
  
Here and there in the cavern were the shapes of worn, eroded statues, like those that had been vandalized or left to decades of erosion. Some were even missing their wings.  
  
Hey Doc..." Tim's voice betrayed his nervousness. "Are those...."  
  
"They are," I answered, keeping my voice level. "All of them. And they're starving."  
  
"There must be at least twenty of them," Liara said, her voice betraying only a hint of nervousness.  
  
"Yes," I said.  
  
"Eyes on them everyone," Gibbs said., The team moved out to cardinal points and kept their eyes moving.  
  
"Probably won't be necessary,," I said. "They're starved. They're dying. They don't have the energy to move." That brought a frown to my face. "The two intact ones must be trying to feed them as well."  
  
"If they're weak now, can't we destroy them?", Ziva asked.  
  
I shook my head. "Quantum lock. There's no way it would work."  
  
"Not what I wanted to hear, Doctor," Gibbs said. "So, what now?"  
  
"I'm taking scans. I think it might be here. The secondary Crack, I mean."  
  
"But you closed it." Tony briefly looked to me before looking outward again, his gun held in his hand.  
  
"It still exists in the other dimensions of space-time, DiNozzo," I explained with complete calm and no irritation at all. Really. "Just as I was hoping really."  
  
"So, what now?" Ziva's eyes swept one of the arcs around us. "They're too weak to come at us. We should do something..."  
  
"I'm thinking," I said. "I have a couple of plans, but I'm not sure...."  
  
As we finished our slow jaunt toward the middle of the grotto, I noticed one of the Angels that had been behind another before we got relatively closer. I narrowed my eyes.  
  
This one... was intact. Completely intact, I mean. There was nothing wrong with it. It was well fed.  
  
And it was.... _smiling_. At _us._  
  
The thought in my head could be summed up with two words.  
  
 _ **Oh bugger.**_  
  
And I should probably mention its finger was mockingly pointed toward the nearest light above us.  
  
"Get ready everyone!", I shouted. "It's...."  
  
The lights went out.  
  
The entire grotto plunged into darkness.  
  
It was a good thing I had been expecting the Angels to kill our lights.  
  
A second after the lights went out, Team Gibbs opened fire. Muzzle flashes repeatedly lit up the area around us. And with every flash, the whole Angel and some of the more intact ones advanced closer. Their arms came up and claws were visible.  
  
It's... very disconcerting to be witnessing that kind of thing. To see such creatures coming closer and closer with each flash of light that illuminates them. To know that once the light is gone for good, you are hopeless to stop them from reaching you. Sure, if you know what they are and what they do, it doesn't seem so frightening to expect them to touch you and *poof*, you're back in time. But there's a part of you that doesn't think like that. A part that sees those sharp teeth, those terrible claws, and imagines being ripped apart and devoured in the dark.  
  
Yes. Very much an unpleasant experience. Now imagine what it was like for Gibbs and his team as they were the ones trying to control their fire and not panic as each pull of the trigger brought the Weeping Angels closer and closer to us. They knew how many bullets they had left, and how little time we had before they ran out, at which time we would be plunged into darkness and _taken_. All they could do was buy us a little time.  
  
Which was, of course, the entire point of the plan.  
  
I didn't have to ask Liara to act. She spread her arms out and a biotic field appeared around us, a bubble that the Angels struck against when they finally got close enough. Team Gibbs ceased firing at this point. "Okay," Gibbs asked, "what now?"  
  
I reached into my pocket. "Now I do something incredibly dangerous."  
  
"Unh." Liara had sweat gathering on her forehead. "Please don't take too long," she asked. "I can only keep this up for a few minutes.... uh!"  
  
The glow of her biotics was insufficient to effectively illuminate much more than the space immediately around her, allowing some of the Angels to attack from any momentary blind side. Their blows struck the biotic field and increased Liara's work load. I had to act quickly.  
  
So I held up the TARDIS remote and felt out for my TARDIS.  
  
The TARDIS began to materialize behind me. "Everyone in!", I shouted, rushing for the door.  
  
"Ziva, Tony, give her cover!", Gibbs added, joining me in rushing into the TARDIS.  
  
Behind us, the two brought their guns back up and began to fire. Their bullets weren't going to do anything, but the flashes again provided for slowing the Angels down and stopping their attack on Liara's biotic bubble. She backed into the TARDIS, turning her biotic field into a shield that Ziva and Tony remained behind. They too backed up into the TARDIS and Ziva grabbed the door, shutting it closed. She let out a breath. "All right, what now?"  
  
"Worst horror movie ever," Tony breathed.  
  
"Now comes the dangerous part," I said, going for the stairs to the underside of the TARDIS controls where I kept various tools.  
  
"You mean _that_ wasn't the dangerous part?!", Ziva said, incredulous.  
  
"It never is," Liara remarked, her voice having a bit of a croak from exhaustion. "There's _always_ something more dangerous."  
  
"Story of my life," i murmured, heading for the tools.  
  
The TARDIS nearly came out from under me. We all rocked hard and everyone had to grab for something. I ended up grabbing for the box I had been aiming for.  
  
"What was that?", Tim asked, his voice full of obvious concern.  
  
"The Angels are hoping to get in," I replied, as the floor shifted again.. "They'll try to shake us out."  
  
"Can they?", Gibbs asked, holding on to one of the handrails and keeping his gun in his hand.  
  
"Not sure," I admitted. "I honestly don't want to find out." I reached into my pile of tools and starting moving things about. The shaking made that harder. "Now to find that quantum field disruptor... Liara you wouldn't happen to know...."  
  
"By the Goddess," she muttered in irritation from above me. "Your quantum tools are in the other container, to the left!"  
  
"Ah." I blinked. "Are you sure, because I could swear...." I was interrupted by another violent shaking.  
  
"Yes I'm sure!", Liara shouted. "Because I put them there!"  
  
"Doc, please tell me you have a plan!", Tony added. "I don't feel like getting turned into a martini!"  
  
The next shake threw me off my feet, but thankfully I landed beside the box I needed. "Ziva! Tony! Get down here!" I started going through devices in the box and found two I was looking for. I put them to the side and defied the shaking to get to another container, this one having the third device I needed. "This is getting annoying!", I protested.  
  
The two agents stumbled off the stairs. "Ziva, you take the blue and gray, Tony, you take..."  
  
"This one?" He picked up the quantum field manipulator emitter. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that he remembered it.  
  
"Right," I said, steeling myself as the TARDIS shook again. I took up the third device and went to Ziva. "Switch with me." We both nearly fell as we made the exchange. "Back up, everyone," i said, returning to the stairs. "Trickiest part is here. And the most dangerous."  
  
Gibbs looked at me from where he was remaining by the door. "And that would be?"  
  
"The only way I know to permanently get rid of the Angels without causing a great deal of destruction," I answered, holding up the field disruptor and pressing keys on it. "I'm going to re-open the Crack."  
  
That got me an incredulous stare. "You're _what_?", Gibbs demanded, even as we shook again.  
  
"This branch of it, I mean," I explained hastily. "I'm going to induce an energy flow acceleration. Beings that come through these Cracks, especially those made of energy, are touched by the energy of the Cracks, you see. It forms a kind of bond. If the Crack begins drawing in energy on the right wavelength, the flow will be of the right type to draw in the Angels. In one swoop the threat is gone. Or would you rather have to hope that nobody will undo any mirror traps you set for them?"  
  
Gibbs frowned at me, although I could see he was considering it. "You're risking the entire world," he said.,  
  
"Yes. But if we don't stop them, your world will eventually be destroyed. That many Weeping Angels?" As we shook again I pointed to the door. "Your cities will become rich feeding grounds for them. Given enough time they'll cause major damage to space-time, assuming they don't destroy your civilization first." I gritted my teeth. "I know what I'm doing, Gibbs. It's a risk, yes, but it's _necessary_ , as much as I don't like it."  
  
Gibbs continued to look at me, hard. He finally nodded in acquiescence. "What do you need from me?"  
  
"What I need...." I was interrupted by another shake. "....is that icy steel glare you so love. I need you to give it to the Angels. Just so long as you don't look in their eyes."  
  
I was answered by a nod. "Right."  
  
"Then let's finish this," I said. "For that poor man Varner, and Mister Lindquist."  
  
Gibbs nodded. And we walked to the doors of the TARDIS together. He brought his gun up and I brought up the disruptor. "McGee, the light stick," I said.  
  
Tim nodded. "Right." He reached into his pocket for the stick in question, one of those lovely chemical light sticks the 21st Century enjoys so much. He twisted it and a small crack was heard within it.  
  
I hefted my quantum field disruptor device against one shoulder, like a soldier raising a rifle to parade position, and freed up my left hand. I held it up and pushed my fingers against each other. I snapped my fingers and the noise echoed inside the TARDIS.  
  
The TARDIS doors swung inward. An Angel stood in their doorway, arms spread from where it was gripping the sides. It was one of the two intact ones, but the face wasn't the same as the other I'd seen. I smirked. This one must have followed us in and destroyed my battery once we were deep enough to have found the grotto.  
  
In other words, the Angel had, like it did so often, chosen to play with its food.  
  
And now it was going to regret it.

  
  
  
  
"Liara," I said, and Gibbs and I stepped away from each other to give Liara room. She made a cry of effort and a bolt of intense biotic energy flew past us and smashed into the Angel. Dark matter surged and crackled and the force it possessed exploded outward from the impact.  
  
The Angel couldn't be harmed, not with its quantum lock in place. But that didn't mean it was _immune_ to physical laws like force.  
  
And so Liara's biotic attack sent it flying backward, stationary, into the darkness. Tim came up behind us and pitched the chem-light into the deep blackness beyond the TARDIS door. Green light revealed a half dozen of the reforming Angels, sick from being starved but still quite formidable.  
  
Gibbs stepped forward, taking a position ahead of me outside of the TARDIS entrance, and raised his gun. It wasn't there to be used. He knew he couldn't shoot them. But it was clearly there for effect, letting him move his gaze to take in all sights around him. His eyes remained fixed on the Angels ahead, freezing them in place.  
  
I had my chance. I held up the quantum disruptor and triggered it. Pale blue light erupted from the muzzle end and shot out, reaching into the cavern until it hit the wall. I frowned and moved the emitter around. It had to be here somewhere. In this direction. I'd placed us precisely to do this.  
  
Or maybe there wasn't enough energy coming through. I checked the disruptor and increased the power. "I know you're here," I muttered. "I know. Show yourself already."  
  
Tim jumped out and to my right, gun raised, and a good thing too. The claws of a Weeping Angel extended from the darkness and were just now visible. I forced myself to avoid holding my breath at the thought that I had been a second from being touched. I looked the other way. No Angels from that direction, yet, but Liara had arrived at the TARDIS entrance. Biotic energy crackled along her form. She was tiring, but she still had a few minutes of energy before she would be exhausted. For now she kept it ready, watching my other side to prevent another Angel from coming from that direction.  
  
I started moving the disruptor again. I waved it left and right... up and down.  
  
"Please tell me you're almost done," Tim muttered. I couldn't see, but I could imagine he was fighting to keep his eyes from blinking. Not an easy thing when you haven't trained for it.  
  
"Come on," I muttered. "Come on...."  
  
Nothing.  
  
Noth...  
  
White light suddenly split the air as I moved the beam from my quantum field disruptor about eight feet above the cavern floor. "There we are," I said. I moved the beam back over it. The white light grew in intensity as it moved to the left and right, forming into a familiar shape in mid-air.  
  
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I released the trigger on the QFD and turned just in time to jump back from the outstretched hand of a snarling Angel. "Bloody hell!", I spat, unable to constrain my startlement and fear. It had jumped or climbed onto the top of the TARDIS to get at me from behind. And it had nearly succeeded.  
  
And it also meant that I had to watch _it_ instead of doing my job.  
  
"Any time now," Gibbs said. There was no nervousness in the man's voice. At least, there wasn't any easily detected, I thought I could catch the barest hint of a bit of nervousness...  
  
"I'm a little busy!", i replied.  
  
"I'm on it," Ziva offered, stepping out and eying the Angel. Tony joined her and they both looked up at the Angel. Behind it, another of the mostly-intact Angels had climbed the TARDIS as well.  
  
"You'd better hurry!", Liara shouted. "They're going to overwhelm us!"  
  
I nodded and turned back to the re-formed Crack, upon which I directed the pale blue beam from the quantum field disruptor. "This shouldn't take long!", I assured them all.  
  
"I would hope not!", Ziva cried out.  
  
As I held it there, the energy flow increased. I could feel the warmth starting to flow out of me. The Crack was sucking in energy again. And much faster than it had before.  
  
The Angels around us started to wobble, like a child was trying to lift a heavy load. The wobbling continued while Gibbs, Liara, and Tim continued to stare down the Crack.  
  
And then the first Angel lifted into the air and flew into it. More began to shudder.and were joining the first. "It's working," I said, smiling. "It's working!"  
  
Energy crackled around us, courtesy of the Crack drawing in all the energy it could. Including, of course, the Angels' particular energies.  
  
I have a feeling that if they could have done so, they would have been screaming. I wouldn't have blamed them either, watching Angel after Angel get pulled up. The fully intact one atop the TARDIS was the last. It shook and tremored on its perch. "That serves you lot!", I said, my tone joyous and triumphant. "Remember to stay away next time!"  
  
Without a sound, it flew free, went over our heads, and was swallowed by the Crack.  
  
I cut the quantum field disruptor and raced back into the TARDIS. "Tony, Ziva, on my mark!", I shouted. I pointed to Tim as he entered. "I need you below, let me know if there are any problems with the engine.  
  
"Sure." He blinked - we were free to do that now - and asked, "How would I know there was a problem? It's just a bunch of blinking lights and..."  
  
"Smoke's usually a good indicator," I said. "Sparks too. Flames. That sort of thing."  
  
"Right." He went to the stairs and began running down them.  
  
I went to the Vortex Regulator and turned it, after which I hit a few buttons. The TARDIS engine powered up. _VWORP VWORP VWORP_. "Always a beautiful sound, my dear," I murmured. I flipped one final switch, establishing the wireless connection to the devices being carried by Ziva and Tony. "Remember...."  
  
"...do not cross the streams," Ziva answered. "Tony repeated that for months after your last visit!"  
  
"Exactly!", I shouted. I felt, I admit, a tad giddy, a bit of a high from the adrenaline, or rather the Time Lord equivalent thereof. Which explains why we Time Lords can act so... unperturbed in the face of danger, come to think of it. "Alright.... now!"  
  
They pulled the triggers. Twin beams lashed out and began surging into the Crack, which pulsed ever brighter with white light. I checked the instrumentation.  
  
"It's getting pretty cold out here," Gibbs warned. "Are you sure this is working?"  
  
"The flow's too strong," I said. "The seal isn't taking!" I flipped a few more switches and really opened up the Vortex. The beams surged ever brighter. "Stay steady!"  
  
"We are!", Ziva retorted. "But it's not working!"  
  
"It's going to!", I shouted back, watching my sensors. The energy from the Crack was still flowing inward, drawing from the world around us. I looked out and saw frost starting to form on one of the stalagmites visible in all of the light shining inside of the grotto. Mist started to come from everyone still standing outside of the TARDIS. I frowned and checked my instrumentation again.  
  
"I feel like I'm in a freezer!", Tony shouted.  
  
I bit my lip in frustration. The energy flow was still too high. I'd had to push it too far to get the Angels sucked in. Now it wasn't closing. Worse yet, I could make out the telltale signs of the Crack's signature spreading. Soon the main Crack would re-open, and this world would be in deep trouble. "There's too much energy flow," I said. "I need something to interfere, something to..." I snapped my fingers. "Of course! Liara!" I turned to face her. "Channel dark matter into the Crack!"  
  
"What?" She stared at me. "In what way?"  
  
"I don't know.... one of your stasis fields perhaps. The dark matter will meddle with the energy flow, it could break it up."  
  
"Right." Liara looked to the Crack and brought her arms up. With great effort she generated dark matter with her biotics and sent it streaming toward the Crack. It surged around it, taking form, like a giant energy bandage trying to contain the Crack. The light within it sputtered and flashed. "I'm... not sure how long... I can do this!", Liara shouted.  
  
"Just a little longer!", I replied.  
  
At that moment I heard pops below. "Um, we've got sparks down here!", Tim warned.  
  
"Fire extinguisher, blue box on the north wall!", I replied. "If it catches fire!" I pursed my lips. This was going to be _close_....  
  
"I don't remember these things getting that hot!", Tony shouted.  
  
"Never had to run them that long," I answered. I ran to the TARDIS door. The tips of the devices were glowing from heat. I could see effort on their faces; the devices were starting to burn their hands.  
  
Liara fell to her knees, but she kept her arms up and the dark matter flowing. I went over to her and knelt beside her. "You're almost there," I promised. "Just a little longer..."  
  
She barely nodded. Her entire concentration was on maintaining the dark matter field.  
  
There was a louder pop in the TARDIS. A fire warning went off and I returned in time to see Tim running a fire extinguisher over it. Gibbs ran past me and started rushing down the stairs, going for another extinguisher.  
  
Any time... any time....  
  
I looked back to the Crack after checking my controls. It was wavering under our efforts. As I heard the hiss of extinguishers, the crackling of overloading circuits, as I watched Liara's strained efforts and the clear pain written on the faces of Ziva and Tony as the Crack-sealing devices overheated in their grasp....  
  
Sometimes... I doubt myself. Sometimes I wonder when the day will come when I take the gamble that doesn't work. When I doom myself, my Companion, my TARDIS, or even an entire world, trying to do something insanely dangerous and not making it work out. I dread the idea of a day where not only do I fail, but I fail completely. Not just having someone die, but having nothing to show for what I've done. A day like the day I failed to bring back Katherine. But worse.  
  
Thankfully, today wasn't that day. There was a loud rush of air as the light of the Crack died entirely, accompanied by a brief pop from all the air rushing to fill the void the Crack had left when it had been sealed from the three base dimensions.  
  
I confirmed this outcome on my screens and quickly closed the regulator. I heard hisses and then clatters; Ziva and Tony had thrown their overheated devices to the ground. I turned back and saw them checking their scalded hands. Ouch. Would definitely need medi-gel there.  
  
Below me the hissing of fire extinguishers halted. I looked down over the railing and saw the clouds of extinguisher still floating about. There was powder on Tim and Gibbs' clothes, but they weren't entirely frosted. "Did it work?", Gibbs asked.  
  
I smiled and nodded. "It did."  
  
I turned in time to see Liara collapse against the frame of the TARDIS door. I went up to her and caught her before she went to the ground completely. "Woh there. Easy does it. You've done it."  
  
"Yeah." She let out a weak breath and cracked open her sapphire eyes to glare at me. A playful glare, I should clarify. "Why is it... that these things always end...." She had to bring in another breath. "... with me pushing my biotics to.... exhaustion?"  
  
"I'll tell you what, no adventures for a while," I promised. "We're going on a vacation."  
  
"We'd better," Liara groaned.  
  
But she was smiling, and that made me smile as well.  
  
Saving the world is always good for a smile.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The business of the Weeping Angels is wrapped up, and our narrator gives something special to Agent Gibbs.

Cleanup from an adventure can always be tedious.  
  
I mean, the debris. Fixing broken things. Making sure Tony and Ziva were treated for the burns the overheating equipment caused them. That sort of thing.  
  
We returned to NCIS HQ after a second search of the caves, just to assuage any possible concerns that we missed one of the Angels. We hadn't. As I had expected, the presence of the TARDIS had made us irresistible bait.  
  
"So you're saying that they would have fed off the TARDIS if they'd gotten past us," Tim asked as we assembled into Abby's lab. "And they might have destroyed the sun?"  
  
"Quite so," I said. "Which is why I knew we needed a good plan to deal with them."  
  
"I don't recall authorizing you to risk destroying the entire Earth," Vance remarked sarcastically from where he was waiting beside Abby and Ducky.  
  
"Judgement call," I answered. "Have to make those once and a while."  
  
"So you got them all, I hope?", Ducky inquired.  
  
"Yes we did," I assured him.  
  
"We made sure of it before coming back," Gibbs said. He looked at Vance. "Are you going to want a report?"  
  
"A report without visual evidence to back up something that sounds insane?" Vance shook his head. "Write one up for me to look over, but this isn't getting filed."  
  
"Yeah, I thought not," Gibbs answered. He looked at me. "Any chance those things or something else comes back through?"  
  
I shook my head. "The Crack was sealed away from the base three dimensions. Nothing should get through unless the Crack opens again, and that shouldn't happen without some very special circumstances."  
  
"Right." Vance sighed. "Now we have to explain to Varner's mother why her son's remains are fifty years old."  
  
"Well..." Abby looked up. "We could burn them and just say he was killed in a freakish fire or something."  
  
"I suppose one could drive his car off a cliff or something of the sort," I said. "But the elaborate lies are the ones that end up with the most questions. I'd stick with mystery. 'The bones were found, indications are likely they're what's left after a bear got to him' or something." I shook my head. "Those bears, always a problem."  
  
"You're talking about the time McAnally threw you out for setting a bear loose in his pub?", Liara asked, smiling thinly from how tired she was.  
  
I glowered at her. "Harry told you that, did he?"  
  
"Actually, Molly did," Liara answered, her smile growing. "Sounded like quite a story."  
  
"For the record, that bear was entirely Dresden's fault, not mine," I insisted. "And Mac didn't throw me out. He simply asked me to leave while he cleaned up."  
  
"Uh huh,." The words oozed disbelief from Liara.  
  
"Yes, that's probably the best approach with Varner's body, Doctor," Vance said, the tone in his voice clear in its impatience. "And what am I to do with the body of Aaron Lundquist?"  
  
"Tricky thing, that," I said. "He has a family."  
  
"Clerical error," Liara suggested. "It won't be hard to put in records showing he was found and his body mistakingly cremated."  
  
"The family will sue," Vance pointed out.  
  
"Ah." Gibbs smirked. "The government can afford it. Gives the family something for their loss."  
  
Vance frowned. "I'll take it under advisement." He nodded to me. "Thank you, Doctor, for your help in this case."  
  
"Oh, it's quite alright," I answered. "Needed to be done. Weeping Angels are nasty buggers."  
  
"I noticed that." Vance accepted my hand in another handshake. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go explain to SecNav why I've had to requisition new monitors for the entire building." He accepted a handshake from Liara. "Doctor T'Soni."  
  
"Director."  
  
He walked out. After he did so Tony looked at his hands again. "Are you sure that stuff worked?", he asked. "Because I still feel a bit of a tingle to my..."  
  
"Medigel does that," Liara assured him. She pointed to his hands but did not touch them, smirking a little as she spoke. "Your epidermis has already healed from the burns, see? It's just the medigel."  
  
"So, it was pretty scary, right?", Abby asked, almost too enthusiastically. "Being in a dark cave with monsters that move when you can't see them, I mean."  
  
"It was very.... exciting," Ziva answered.  
  
"It was like living in a horror movie," Tony added. "The scariest damn movie you've ever imagined."  
  
"Scarier than Nightmare on Elm Street? Because that movie terrified me," Abby inquired.  
  
"Way scarier than Freddy."  
  
"Ah yes," i said. "The 'illustrious' Mister Kreuger. Quite the frightening sort." I smirked. "Well, until he tried to invade the wrong mind anyway."  
  
Tony and Abby gave me sharp looks. "Who's mind?", Tony asked suspiciously.  
  
My smirk grew. "Who's do you think, Agent DiNozzo?"  
  
  
  
We said our goodbyes and headed out. Once the TARDIS was safely in the Vortex I took the time to double-check our repairs. Liara emerged from one of the corridors. "So, about that vacation?"  
  
"What about it?", I asked.  
  
""You _are_ going to take one, right?", she asked. "Because I'm feeling really tired of getting knocked around and going to the point of exhaustion with my biotics."  
  
I sighed. "Yes, a vacation. I promise."  
  
"Good." She gave me a bemused look. "And no excuses about 'the TARDIS brought us here, not me'."  
  
"Absolutely none," I lied.  
  
She let out a playful little scoff and went back to the corridor. "I'm going to lay down for a while."  
  
"Get some good rest," I said to her.  
  
"We'd better be somewhere nice when I wake up," Liara called out from the corridor.  
  
"Don't worry, we will be," I assured her, even as I put in new coordinates on the TARDIS. I had something else to do.  
  
  
  
  
Liara was still sleeping when I materialized the TARDIS in a backyard, entered a back door that was never locked, and made my way to a flight of downward stairs, following the sounds of woodcarving work as I went.  
  
It was late and Gibbs was still up, working on his wordcrafting projects. He was in a gray shirt marked with NCIS lettering. He looked up at me as I started going down the stairway. "Hey," he said. "Something on your mind?"  
  
"Nothing business related," I answered. "I had something... I acquired something that would be of interest to you."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a cassette tape. He accepted it and walked over to his desk, where a tape player and recorder was waiting. He went to pour a drink and I let him know I was uninterested this time. He only poured into one glass jar and put the other away. He plopped the tape in and hit play.  
  
After a bit of scratchiness, my voice started to come through. " _...little study we're doing. Think of this as a time capsule message to your husband._ "  
  
" _Okay. Ask what you need._ ", a female voice replied.  
  
Gibbs grew very still. " _Your name for the record, ma'am?_ ", I asked on the recording.  
  
" _I'm Shannon Gibbs and this is my daughter Kelly_."  
  
Gibbs didn't look away from the recorder. I thought his fists clenched a little. I said nothing.  
  
On the recording, at my prompting, his late wife and daughter spoke to the him of the present day. I had told them it was for posterity, a chance to give him a message to be delivered when they were all much older.  
  
During the whole thing, even as his family praised him and expressed their love and affection, he looked.... different. Not the stoic, steely-eyed police agent I'd come to know and respect. He looked tired. No, not just tired.  
  
Vulnerable. Vulnerable and full of pain.  
  
I think I began to see him in a new light at this point. A man his age should be considering retirement. But why would he? He had no companionship to live in retirement with. He had no adult child to be proud of, no grandchildren to spoil. All he had were old broken dreams and the job.  
  
Not just the job. The team. _His_ team. Tony, Ziva, Tim, and Abby. They were his... children, in a way. They were all he had.  
  
My interview with Shannon and Kelly Gibbs came to its end. " _I love you Daddy!_ ", Kelly had declared into the microphone as a final word. There was a clicking noise and the recording stopped.  
  
"I'm sorry," I managed to say. "It was the best I could do."  
  
Gibbs said nothing at first. He took the tape out and considered it for a moment. "Could you have saved them?", he asked me.  
  
My mouth went dry. An old shame built up within me. "I..." I swallowed. "I tried. Once. When I was in a... dark place."  
  
When I wasn't me. When I was Triumphant.  
  
"What happened?", he asked.  
  
"I succeeded," I answered. "And then the gunman got them anyway."  
  
That steely gaze focused on me. "How?"  
  
"If I had to hazard a guess? Something my friend Donar Vadderung calls 'temporal inertia'. Events that happened can build up a sort of inertia, like an object given motion, that alters probabilities to ensure they happen regardless of a time traveler interfering."  
  
He remained quiet for a moment. "Thank you," he finally said. "You can see yourself out."  
  
"Right." He wanted to be alone now. I nodded and respected his wishes by leaving the basement and departing in the TARDIS. I knew he needed to be alone.  
  
I'd gotten them all out of the danger posed by the Weeping Angels. I was content in that. Their world was again safe from a threat they had no means to understand, let alone deal with.  
  
But I still had cause to worry. About the Cracks. How they seemed to be attracting the foes of the Doctor. Or how the Sontarans had figured out so much about the Crack they had used to invade Thessia, or indeed....how or who had guaranteed them the Doctor's non-interference in their scheme. This was a case of great concern for me and I yearned to find more puzzle pieces to solve it.,  
  
Which meant I had to keep traveling, no matter where the road - or my TARDIS - took me.  
  
....first things first, of course. I _had_ promised Liara a vacation.  
  



End file.
